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24 PART 1 • OVERVIEW OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

4. How important do you feel “being adept at adapting” is for business firms? Explain.
5. Compare the opossum and turtle to the woolly mammoth and saber-toothed tiger in terms of
being adept at adapting. What can we learn from the opossum and turtle?
6. As cited in the chapter, Edward Deming, a famous businessman, once said, “In God we
trust. All others bring data.” What did Deming mean in terms of developing a strategic
plan?
7. What strategies do you believe can save newspaper companies from extinction?
8. Distinguish between the concepts of vision and mission.
9. Your university has fierce competitors. List three external opportunities and three external
threats that face your university.
10. List three internal strengths and three internal weaknesses that characterize your
university.
11. List reasons why objectives are essential for organizational success.
12. List four strategies and a hypothetical example of each.
13. List six characteristics of annual objectives.
14. Why are policies especially important in strategy implementation?
15. What is a “retreat,” and why do firms take the time and spend the money to have these?
16. Discuss the notion of strategic planning being more formal versus informal in an organiza-
tion. On a 1 to 10 scale from formal to informal, what number best represents your view of
the most effective approach? Why?
17. List 10 guidelines for making the strategic-planning process effective. Arrange your
guidelines in prioritized order of importance in your opinion.
18. List what you feel are the five most important lessons for business that can be garnered from
The Art of War book.
19. What is the fundamental difference between business strategy and military strategy in terms
of basic assumptions?
20. Explain why the strategic management class is often called a “capstone course.”
21. What aspect of strategy formulation do you think requires the most time? Why?
22. Why is strategy implementation often considered the most difficult stage in the strategic-
management process?
23. Why is it so important to integrate intuition and analysis in strategic management?
24. Explain the importance of a vision and a mission statement.
25. Discuss relationships among objectives, strategies, and policies.
26. Why do you think some chief executive officers fail to use a strategic-management approach
to decision making?
27. Discuss the importance of feedback in the strategic-management model.
28. How can strategists best ensure that strategies will be effectively implemented?
29. Give an example of a recent political development that changed the overall strategy of an
organization.
30. Who are the major competitors of your college or university? What are their strengths
and weaknesses? What are their strategies? How sucessful are these institutions compared
to your college?
31. Would strategic-management concepts and techniques benefit foreign businesses as much
as domestic firms? Justify your answer.
32. What do you believe are some potential pitfalls or risks in using a strategic-management
approach to decision making?
33. In your opinion, what is the single major benefit of using a strategic-management approach
to decision making? Justify your answer.
34. Compare business strategy and military strategy.
35. Why is it important for all business majors to study strategic management since most
students will never become a chief executive officer nor even a top manager in a large
company?
36. Describe the content available on the SMCO Web site at www.strategyclub.com
37. List four financial and four nonfinancial benefits of a firm engaging in strategic
planning.
38. Why is it that a firm can normally sustain a competitive advantage for only a limited period
of time?
39. Why it is not adequate to simply obtain competitive advantage?
40. How can a firm best achieve sustained competitive advantage?